Ohio is making its move against the Masters of the Universe and the first target is Google. If Yost wins hi suit the others such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube could be right behind.
If Google is declared a utility the entire game changes because utilities can be regulated. That’s the last thing any of the Big Tech companies want. They can be regulated in such a way that they have to treat everyone’s speech equally.
Of course, something of this magnitude will be ultimately at the Supreme Court level. Unless every lower court rules the same way, either for or against. That seems unlikely but it has been known to happen.
Yost filed the lawsuit in the Delaware County Court.
It is Yost’s contention that they use their dominance as a search engine to steer people to Google’s own products instead of organic search results.
Yost said:
“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive. When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”
Yost is one of 37 bi-partisan AGs that filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the search engine giant that focuses on their search engine business.
No doubt Google will bring in a gaggle of high-priced attorneys because if they lose this case, it will cost them billions over the years and they won’t let that go without a fight.
Google makes the outlandish claim that regulating the search engine will result in making it harder for small companies to be seen.
The complaint alleges that because of the company’s “self-preferencing Results-page architecture,” almost two-thirds of Google searches in 2020 were complete without users leaving Google-owned platforms. This means that users never left the search page or found the answers they were looking for on another Google platform such as YouTube, Google Flights, Google Maps, Google News, Google Shopping, or Google Travel.
A company spokesperson commented on the lawsuit stated that it would “make Google Search results worse and make it harder for small businesses to connect directly with customers.” The spokesperson added: “Ohioans simply don’t want the government to run Google like a gas or electric company. This lawsuit has no basis in fact or law and we’ll defend ourselves against it in court.”
